the semantic turn: a new foundation for design

370 Pages·2005·6.88 MB·English

by  Klaus Krippendorff

TF1727_HalfTitle 10/19/05 1:27 PM Page 1
the semantic turn
a new foundation for design
TF1727_C000a.fm Page ii Thursday, October 20, 2005 6:59 AM
TF1727_Title 10/19/05 1:28 PM Page 1
the semantic turn
a new foundation for design
klaus krippendorff
gregory bateson professor for cybernetics, language, and culture
the annenburg school for communication
university of pennsylvania
Boca Raton London New York
A CRC title, part of the Taylor & Francis imprint, a member of the
Taylor & Francis Group, the academic division of T&F Informa plc.
TF1727_Discl.fm Page 1 Thursday, July 21, 2005 2:31 PM
Published in 2006 by
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742
© 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group
No claim to original U.S. Government works
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-415-32220-0 (Hardcover)
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-415-32220-1 (Hardcover)
Library of Congress Card Number 2005051077
This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reprinted material is
quoted with permission, and sources are indicated. A wide variety of references are listed. Reasonable efforts
have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and the publisher cannot assume
responsibility for the validity of all materials or for the consequences of their use.
No part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers.
For permission to photocopy or use material electronically from this work, please access www.copyright.com
(http://www.copyright.com/) or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC) 222 Rosewood Drive,
Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that provides licenses and registration
for a variety of users. For organizations that have been granted a photocopy license by the CCC, a separate
system of payment has been arranged.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only
for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Krippendorff, Klaus.
The semantic turn : a new foundation for design / by Klaus Krippendorff.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-415-32220-0 (alk. paper)
1. Design--Philosophy. 2. Design, Industrial--Social aspects. I. Title.
NK1505.K755 2005
745.4--dc22 2005051077
Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at
http://www.taylorandfrancis.com
Taylor & Francis Group and the CRC Press Web site at
is the Academic Division of T&F Informa plc. http://www.crcpress.com
TF1727_C000b.fm Page v Tuesday, November 15, 2005 7:15 AM
Dedication
To:
Horst Rittel
for being a dedicated and inspiring teacher and an enthusiastic
explorer of complex design issues — greeting each new discovery with
his mischievous smile — but above all, for entrusting me with
my own ideas.
John Rheinfrank
for reintroducing me to design with cutting-edge projects — always
playing with ideas and struggling for clarity while enabling his team
members to make things happen.
Reinhart Butter
for practicing product semantics well before it had a name, teaching
me what he learned with his students, and never wavering in seeing
the virtue of the semantic turn. Without his longtime collaboration,
encouragement, and practical projects, this book would have been
unlikely.
Marge Thorell
for listening to the excitement and drudgery of writing this book and
making her time with me generously available for it.
TF1727_C000b.fm Page vi Tuesday, November 15, 2005 7:15 AM
TF1727_C000b.fm Page vii Tuesday, November 15, 2005 7:15 AM
…philosophers have only interpreted the world…;
the point is to change it.
Karl Marx, 1845*
Laß us menschlich sein.—
Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1937**
…vocabularies — all vocabularies, even those which contain the words
which we take most seriously, the ones most essential to our self-
descriptions — are human creations, tools for the creation of such
other artifacts as poems, utopian societies, scientific theories, and
future generations. …changing the way we talk…(is) changing what
we want to do and what we think we are.
Richard Rorty, 1988***
* The 11th Thesis on Feuerbach in German Ideology, Karl Marx (1845).
** Literally but not connotatively: “Let us be human.” Culture and Value, Wittgenstein (1980:30).
*** Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity, Rorty (1989:53,20).
TF1727_C000b.fm Page viii Tuesday, November 15, 2005 7:15 AM
TF1727_C000b.fm Page ix Tuesday, November 15, 2005 7:15 AM
Table of Contents
Foreword..............................................................................................................xiii
Introduction and Overview................................................................................xv
Chapter 1 History and aim..............................................................................1
1.1 Brief history of product semantics..............................................................1
1.2 Trajectory of artificiality................................................................................5
1.2.1 Products..............................................................................................6
1.2.2 Goods, services, and identities.......................................................7
1.2.3 Interfaces.............................................................................................8
1.2.4 Multiuser systems and networks...................................................9
1.2.5 Projects..............................................................................................10
1.2.6 Discourses.........................................................................................11
1.3 The changing environment of design.......................................................13
1.3.1 Society...............................................................................................13
1.3.2 Technology.......................................................................................15
1.3.3 Manufacture.....................................................................................16
1.3.4 Computer aided design (CAD).....................................................17
1.3.5 Design management.......................................................................18
1.3.6 Market research...............................................................................19
1.3.7 Philosophy’s linguistic turn..........................................................20
1.4 Redesigning design (discourse).................................................................23
1.4.1 Discourse..........................................................................................23
1.4.2 Design...............................................................................................25
1.4.3 Design discourse.............................................................................32
Chapter 2 Basic concepts of human-centered design..............................39
2.1 Predecessors..................................................................................................40
2.2 The axiomaticity of meaning.....................................................................47
2.3 Sense, meaning, and context......................................................................50
2.3.1 Sense..................................................................................................50
2.3.2 Meaning............................................................................................52
2.3.3 Context..............................................................................................59
2.4 Stakeholders in design................................................................................63
2.5 Second-order understanding......................................................................65